Jeffrey P. Bates

As a member of the Health Care Liability Practice Group, Jeffrey concentrates his practice in the defense of medical/dental malpractice, products liability and premises liability claims. In his career to date, Jeff has worked on several hundred medical and dental malpractice cases. He also handles large-scale personal injury claims arising from construction accidents and explosions.

Jeff has represented doctors, dentists, physician assistants, certified registered nurse practitioners and nurses in a multitude of malpractice actions. He has also represented doctors, dentists, nurses, psychologists, therapists and social workers before their various licensing boards. He has successfully litigated several matters before Administrative Law Judges, obtaining favorable outcomes for his clients, and has also been successful in negotiating dismissal of actions without any discipline. Additionally, Jeff has handled mass tort actions involving drug studies, medical device cases and pharmaceutical actions. He has also represented veterinarians in various legal actions. 

Jeff has taken 35 cases to trial, 15 of which were tried to jury. He received 14 defense verdicts in his jury trials and a high percentage of defense verdicts in his bench trials. A high percentage of the remaining case outcomes consisted of settlements or verdicts significantly below the settlement demands. Through the creative use of medical, vocational, life care and accident reconstruction experts, Jeff's team was able to reduce demand from $20 million to $6 million. Jeff has also handled more than 30 arbitrations and 10 mediations. In addition, he successfully resolved a tort action with potential exposure of $8-$10 million by convincing the plaintiff that our client was not liable for injury causing quadriplegia in a 21-year-old.

Jeff is involved in various professional, civic and cultural organizations. He is active in the Philadelphia Bar Association's Professional Responsibility Committee. In 1997 and again in 2010, he was the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. In 1998, Jeff received the Regional Outreach Award from the Philadelphia Baptist Association. He was elected as a member of the Abington School District Board of Directors for the 2002­-2005, 2006-2009 and 2010-2013 terms. He has also dedicated time and energy to the Abington Educational Foundation and has participated in the Philadelphia VIP program. In addition to his professional and community service activities, Jeff enjoys cycling, playing the horn and beekeeping.